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Chicago public school property taxes going up for 2013

Property taxes for Chicago Public Schools will rise on bills that come out next week, but the rates paid by city homeowners still will be lower than in all but a few suburbs, new data obtained by the Tribune show.

CPS officials have estimated that the owner of a $250,000 home will see a property tax increase of $28, but tax experts caution that too many variables are involved to say precisely what to expect. Those variables include the home's market value, how long a home has been owned by the same person, the home's neighborhood and the owner's age.

Cook County Clerk David Orr will release tax rates for school districts, villages, park districts and the like on Tuesday. The rates will be used to calculate the second installment of tax bills that Treasurer Maria Pappas will mail out July 1. To avoid a penalty, those bills must be paid by Aug. 1.

Chicagoans have long bemoaned high property taxes, but the new rates illustrate that their pain pales compared with their suburban counterparts.

In Chicago, the average school property tax tab, including money collected by CPS and the School Finance Authority, is about $1,252 for an owner-occupied home that would sell for about $150,000, according to the data.

By comparison, the public school tax bill in west suburban Oak Park on a home worth about the same amount of money — if one could be found — would be about twice as much, the data showed. Homeowners in south suburban Harvey, which has some of the highest property tax rates in the region, will pay three times as much for public education.